Operational characteristics of wireless telephones and wireless telephone systems and networks differ from that of wireline systems due to the transient nature of the wireless telephones. Wireless telephones are routinely out of service for a variety of reasons. For example, if the user of a wireless telephone turns the telephone off or if the wireless telephone battery lacks sufficient charge, the wireless telephone will not be capable of receiving incoming calls. Likewise, if the wireless telephone is taken out of the wireless service area, the wireless telephone will not be capable of receiving incoming calls. During such times, the user of an out of service wireless telephone may receive voice mail messages if voice mail services are provisioned on the wireless telephone, or the user of the out of service wireless telephone may simply miss the call altogether.
Wireless telephones that are provisioned for receiving caller identification information typically display the information such as the name and telephone number of the calling party and often the date and time of the call. If the user of the wireless telephone does not answer the call, or if the user of the wireless telephone is currently speaking to another caller, the wireless telephone often will receive caller identification information on the calling party and place that information in a missed call log along with an indication that a call was missed. In either case, the calling party may be routed to the voice messaging service, if any, utilized by the wireless telephone.
A problem occurs, however, when the wireless telephone is out of service. When the wireless telephone is out of service, calls placed to the telephone may be routed through to the voice messaging service of the wireless telephone, but caller identification information is lost and no missed call log is generated for calls attempted to the wireless telephone during the out of service period. Accordingly, when the wireless telephone is returned to service, the user has no indication or record of missed calls during the out of service period.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for method and system for capturing missed call information and for delivering that information to a wireless telephone when the telephone returns to service after an out of service period.